POULTON-IN-THE-FYLDE, a township, market town and parish in the fee and hundred of Amounderness, the polling district of Poulton-le-Fylde, and the poor law union of the Fylde, or Kirkham. Number of acres 14,289. There are five townships: Poulton-le-Fylde, Hardhorn-with-Newton, Carleton, and Thornton, in the division of Gartang, and Marton, in the division of Preston. The town is 18 miles N. N. W. of Preston. Traces of the Roman way from Ribchester to the Wyre are existing; Roman coins were lately discovered at Fleetwood; and a Celtic battle axe has been found at Marton. A court leet and baron is held for Great Marton; and leets for Little Marton and Carleton. A court of requests, for recovery of small debts, is held monthly for the parish, &c., date 1768. The principal halls are Rossall, Burn, and Staining,– the first was once a monastic grange. The church existed 1096, rebuilt 15th century, and 1751, dedicated to St. Chad, living a vicarage, annual value £257, patron Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart.- The episcopal chapels are four, Great Marton, St. Paul, built 1800, annual value of curacy £100; South Shore, Trinity, in Layton Hawes, adjacent to Blackpool, date 1837,- see article Bispham; Thornton, Christ’s Church, built 1836; and St Peter’s now erecting at Fleetwood, Thornton. The Catholics, Wesleyans and Friends have chapels in the town, the Wesleyans at Thornton, and the Independents at Great Marton. The general lighting and watching act is partly in operation. The market is held by prescription on Mondays; and there are fairs February 3, April 13, and November 3. The manufactures are trivial, consisting of cotton and sail cloth weaving. The estuary of the river Wyre is remarkable as an excellent harbour, 5 miles in length, and 200 yards wide,- at high tides there is 36 feet of water, and never less than 5. In 1835 a company of shareholders obtained an act of parliament for forming a railway from Preston to the Wyre, and for improving the harbour of the Wyre; this railway was constructed in 1836-9, and opened July 16, 1840, length 19 ½ miles, cost about £130,000,- it is carried over a portion of the bay by an embankment; the harbour is in course of extensive improvement, so as to have never less than 12 feet water: a lighthouse, on the screw principle, has been erected, two others are in progress,- a spacious dock is forming,- and above 600 acres of land is undergoing reclamation from the bay of the Wyre. A town of elegant design is erecting, to which the name of FLEETWOOD has been given, in compliment to Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., the enterprising projector of these vast plans; the situation is in Thornton, opposite the mouth of the Wyre, 19 ½ miles N. N. W. of Preston, and 7 miles N. N. W. of Poulton.- Above 1,000 men are engaged in the various works.- The railway skirts the town of Poulton. The population of the parish in 1801 was 2,938; 1811, 3,390; 1821, 4,031; 1831, 4,082. The district is highly salubrious. The free school of Poulton, date 1717, is endowed with £69 per annum; that of Marton , date 1717, with £91 per annum; Thornton, date 1717, £31 per annum; founder of the three James Baines; who also left a munificent bequest, now £100 yearly, to the poor, and for apprenticing their children. Carleton school endowment is £22 per annum. In 1833 the day schools were 15, and sunday 5. Here is a large workhouse. There is a small library. Annual value of property 1815, £30,062; 1829, £26,488. Pasture preponderates as compared with arable land, average rent per acre £1. 15s. Marton Moss is 6 miles in length, and 1½ in breadth; immense quantities of trees are dug up out of the moss, regarded as the remains of a subterranean forest: this moss was anciently a lake.

“A Statistical Sketch of the County Palatine of Lancaster (1841)”, by Edwin Butterworth, facsimile reprint 1968, by the ‘Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society’. With grateful thanks to the Society.